Berlin Hosts Wind Energy Dialogue

On October 15, the 10th Wind Energy and Development Dialogue (Windenergie- und Entwicklungsdialogs; WEED) was held in Berlin. The anniversary event was opened by Ursula Borak, sub-division head at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), and by GWEC President Dr. Klaus Rave.

The event counted more than 100 participants from ten partner countries and from Germany.

The dialogue revolved around the following questions:

• What potential is offered by the wind energy markets in Kenya, Ghana, Vietnam and the Philippines and what conditions must be created to promote the involvement of German companies?
• How can policy-makers of these target markets and from Germany support each other in the development of wind power and how does this affect investment decisions by the German wind industry?
• What practical experience gained by the German wind energy sector can be useful to public decision-makers in the target markets and in Germany to improve conditions?

Among others, the turbine manufacturers Nordex, Siemens, Vestas and Enercon contributed their expertise to the discussion. For the first time the event was concluded by business bilaterals giving participating companies the chance to pose questions to decision-makers from target countries in bilateral meetings.

In the last ten years, the WEED has been offering a unique opportunity for political and economic decision makers as well as representatives of civil society from emerging and developing countries and from Germany to exchange experiences and views on chances and barriers of wind energy deployment.

This year’s Business-Policy Dialogue addressed particularly the German export-oriented wind energy sector as well as economic and political decision-makers from emerging and developing countries. It has been hosted by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) as part of the Project Development Programme (PDP) of the “renewables – Made in Germany” initiative and has been organized by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH with the support of the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) and the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) Power Systems.

Image: BWE